Italy To Build World's Longest Suspension Bridge

Rei writes "According to the BBC, Italy has just granted contracts to begin work on the world's longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland. The nearly four kilometer-long bridge across the Messina Straits is to carry a double six-lane highway and four high-speed railway tracks. Its main span will be 3.3 kilometers long; this would over 1.5x the current record-holder, the 1991-meter Akashi-Kaikyo bridge."

Comments

Here's a hint for anyone travelling on it.

[nihilistcanada]

If your name is Sonny, don't stop at the tollbooth.

Re:math?

[destx]

"Its main span will be 3.3 kilometers long"

duh.

Linux role - any?

[bogaboga]

This is to request slashdotters in Italy to track and tell us the role of Linux/OSS if any, in this project. If one knows how Linux can be of use, I'd welcome the information too. I wonder whether Linux/OSS can play a role.

Cost vs Bay Bridge retrofit

[guacamole]

I am slightly surprised that this project is expected to cost at most as much, if not less, than the extected cost of seismic retrofit for the relatively shorter San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (that project involves the construction of a completely new replacement for the eastern span of the bridge). How come? I suppose one reason is that the cost of everything in Bay Area is much much higher than in southern Italy. What about other factors? Is there something that makes the Italian design inherently cheaper to implement?

Re:Cost vs Bay Bridge retrofit

[dbIII]

What about other factors? Is there something that makes the Italian design inherently cheaper to implement?

Different constraints - the portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has to fit with the rest of it and the bridge will presumably be in use while construction is going on. The Italy-Sicily bridge just has to cover the distance, doesn't have to fit to a pre-existing design and doesn't have to be used until it's finished.

In a lot of places you will see bridges built next to each other - sometimes it's cheaper to build a whole new bridge instead of tacking another bit on the side.

The cost of stuff in the Bay area are most likely irrelevant to the project, since stuff will come in from elsewhere.

Re:Cost vs Bay Bridge retrofit

[Filiks]

Instead of a concrete skyway like in the Florida Keys, the mayors of Oakland and SF, with the general backing of the Bay Area residents, wanted a signature span instead. The final design has never actually been built anywhere in the world on this scale. Consequently when bids went out for contractors, only one company decided to bid and get involved in this very political situation. Well that bids was far more than expected. Meanwhile over the years the cost of steel has increased dramatically, particularly steel made in the USA, which was a requirement for this project.

Re:Cost vs Bay Bridge retrofit

[TeXMaster]

Other factors are:

• eveything in Italy is cheaper than in the USA (about half, although the gap is diminishing)
• in the South, this is especially more true
• local labour
• cheating: with this I mean that the prospected cost will grow much higher as time goes by; since Berlusconi is likely to lose the next elections and who knows, probably the ones after those too, it'll be the left-wing parties that'll have to dig for that money, or stop the works; all the best for Mr. B
• contrary to the use in most civilized nations (Italy included) the private company that builds it will not be held responsible for defects; this means that if the bridge collapses (wanna bet?) the State will be held liable, not the company that's building it

Re:Suspension bridge

[mrchaotica]

Hey, don't knock it. The Akashi Strait bridge -- which, as the article mentions, is the current record holder -- is built directly across a major fault line. They actually had a big earthquake during construction, and had to make the section in the middle a few feet longer to compensate! : S

Re:Is that Prudent?

[deglr6328]

why would it cause "havoc"? Surely it will be heavily monitored live by camera and other methods. It's going to be a double six-lane highway!! There's no reason one of the lanes couldn't be reserved for emergency traffic. Also, it's only 2.5 miles long. Huge for a bridge but nothing special otherwise. You could therefore reach any point on the bridge in about a minute. I have to say I'm not seeing any show-stoppers here.

election campaign

[Anonymous Coward]

It's election time again in Italy and Berlusconi needs the votes of Sicilies citizens.
So he pulls out the old bridge plans like he did the last time and the time before.
Don't expect to travel to Sicily on try feet too soon.

Re:election campaign

[Anonymous Coward]

From www.beppegrillo.it

A bridge costing 3,880,000,000 Euro to save 20 minutes

Attacking the Messina Bridge is like attacking the Red Cross. This is plain even to an idiot who is completely useless, even though he is useful to the interests of someone.

After the ad hoc laws, we now have the ad hoc construction work.

The bridge is of no use to the Italians, including those from Reggio and from Messina, divided by nature for a million years. To go from Salerno to Reggio Calabria, it takes 48 hours. Then the bridge will allow you to save 20 minutes to get to Sicily.

The country has other priorities that are real. Motorways and railways are in an abysmal state.

The 3,880,000,000 Euro are ours. Why should we spend them for a useless construction? Our employees, incapable of managing our public debt, before spending the money for the bridge should explain how we will get a return on the money, and explain the utility, the environmental impact and the do-ability.

A 3,000 metre bridge with an aerodynamic profile, has never been constructed up to now.
There's no guarantee that it will stand up, especially if you consider that it's in a zone of major seismic activity (remember the Messina earthquake?) and with incredibly strong currents.

On this point refer to the interview with the Professor of architectural construction, Massimo Majowiecki. Some of his conclusions are given here.

"The Delegations of Superintendence of ANAS {Roads}, of FF.SS {railways} and the Ministry of Public
Works, in July 1995 conclude: " that the Progetto di Massima Definitivo {the final project plan} presented in December 1992, even given the undoubted value of the information supplied, it is not yet possible to indicate which project is definitely the one to be developed into a construction project, to be translated into the building of a bridge and a global passage across."
In present conditions, the technical uncertainties stil remain...."

But the bridge will create jobs and contracts and will get the approval of the Confindustria {employers' organisation} and of the Unions. Perhaps it would be better to get them to dig holes and fill them in again. It's a useless activity, but at least it wouldn't cause harm.

Beppe Grillo

Supposed to finish in 2012

[FidelCatsro]

I had heard Rumours that the project may be suspended

Re:Is that Prudent?

[bedroll]

There are plenty of bridges that are longer than that and they serve their purpose well. This is just the longest suspension bridge. I've personally used the 23-mile bridge-tunnel across the Chesapeake Bay. Also consider the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, it's 23 miles all above water. Neither of them are as wide as this bridge is proposed to be, either.

Re:Critical Failure

[pyro_peter_911]

Given its length, and the presumably large number of people that could be on it at a time, I presume it would be a potential target for terrorists or organized crime (hey, it's Sicily...) based on past threats against bridges and tunnels by terrorist groups.

How would they prevent against this? It seems such a bridge has two critical failure points at both ends and one or more in the middle.

I know they have water to cross, so its size doesn't appear to be the motivation, as say for the tallest building etc. but I think these are issues which (sadly) need to be considered.

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! Can we even mention constructing a structure larger than a Taco Bell without someone saying "Well, that's a nice idea, but The Terrorists could just blow it up." Here's a whack from The Reality Stick for you. The Terrorists can (and will) Blow Stuff Up. They're generally going to do it where there are a lot of people in order to maximize Body Count (aka Terror). Fortunately, for The Terrorists, the world is a target rich environment because for the past 10,000 years people have not advanced "Well, that's a nice idea, but The Terrorists could just blow it up" as a credible reason to abandon major projects. A new world's longest bridge or World's Blankest Blank will be yet another target and life will go on.

Now, I'm not advancing this bridge as a good idea. There may be, and probably are, many legitimate reasons why it should be built differently or even not at all. However, suggesting that every new structure should be terrorist proof is delusional.

Peter

Re:Politican vapourware

[mincognito]

This is just a political manoeuvre by the Governemt.

Precisely. They need to create a sense of national pride after losing the whole noodle issue with the chinese.

Previous attempts have failed

[G3ckoG33k]

This project may fail. But then not for technological reasons.

Several previous attempts of multibillion-dollar, EU-funded projects in that region have failed somewhere between Rome and Palermo. Money, people, and concrete have disappeared and there were never any witnesses. Hope things have changed.

Huh 4km aka 2.5m long total (FTFA)?

[sm00f]

The Mackinac Bridge here in michigan is 5 miles long, and held the record for longest suspension span until 1998 at 3/4 mile or so... Is this bridge just being built with NO middle column?? Anyways are some fun links for the Mackinac Bridge (that nobody knows exists it seems): here's all the stats and one pic: http://bridgepros.com/projects/Mackinac/Mackinac.h tm here's the google images link for nice pics: http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&c2c off=1&safe=off&q=mackinac+bridge&spell=1 ^^^ and why in the hell doesnt slashdot support carriage returns on win2k + mozilla 1.7???

With a BIG grain of salt...

[mano78]

Please be aware that this is a plan that's been around for more than twenty years now, and it's not feasible. The wind is just too strong (been there last month, I saw it), the zone is a sismic one and generally noone cares anyway, because the roads that would bring people to the bridge (the infamous Salerno-Reggio Calabria) are ancient to be kind and generally a wreck.

Be also aware that this is election time, and our prime citizen Berlusconi will lose. So he bring out this old project, to gain some thousands of votes, and will leave it to the next administration to realize. Same old story...

(see the Mose project to protect Venice from floodings)

Re:Is that Prudent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also consider the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, it's 23 miles all above water.

You want to update this. Since end of August, it's 23 miles all below water...

Re:Not the Japanese...

[Mostly a lurker]

Without wishing in any way to denigrate the Viaduc de Millau, it is not comparable to the Japanese bridge in engineering difficulty. The French effort is the highest bridge, but the Japanese bridge consists of three spans of 960, 1991 and 960 metres respectively. A main span of almost two kilometres is a formidible challenge under any circumstances, and especially when it must be built to withstand an 8.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicentre within 150 kilometres.

nusefull

[silian87]

I am an italian guy, and I think this bridge is simple unuseful!!! It cost a lot of money to a country that have money problems, and maiby it is dangerous too! Boat exist!

Re:Is that Prudent?

[night_it]

Surely it will be heavily monitored live by camera and other methods. It's going to be a double six-lane highway!! There's no reason one of the lanes couldn't be reserved for emergency traffic. Also, it's only 2.5 miles long. Huge for a bridge but nothing special otherwise. You could therefore reach any point on the bridge in about a minute. I have to say I'm not seeing any show-stoppers here.

Ok guy, you weren't born in Sicily..